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Hello in good morning you guys.
How are you doing. We're good?

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How are you? Absolutely fantastic here
at the zoo and we're broadcasting right here

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by this beautiful lake in South Carolina
because we're celebrating turtles as well. Guys.

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Right, we're actually at the Santa
Barbara Zuit. Santa Barbara. Oh

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my god, I love, Oh
my god, you guys play it is

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Oh god, you go down there. I believe it's Combello Avenue where all

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the restaurants. You're right down there
by the ocean and stuff. Yeah.

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Yeah, Well, what we've been
doing is we've been hanging out with turtles.

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Better. Now, now, let's
let's talk about the turtles of the

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Santa Barbara area, because you know, so many of us associate them with

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going out there into the ocean.
But what are you up in the hills

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and stuff. I mean, because
I can't imagine how many turtles are around

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that area. Well, right right
now, one of the most endangered turtles

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is the western pond turtle. And
they've got some of them here and they're

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going to Joy Zoo working on breathing
the lease and endangered turtles up soon.

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They're getting gearing up to do that. They also have some endangered audict turtles

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who are not native to hear Yeah, they have the radiated tortoises. They

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Douche Matt has actually been the matic
gascar to meet those turtles in the wild.

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There's some of the most endangered turtles
in the world. So we think

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of we think a turtles. A
lot of people think of turtles and sea

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turtles, but there's there's seven species
and sea turtles, but there's actually over

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three hundred and fifty turtles in the
world and most of them are tortoises and

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water turtles freshwater turtles. So it
is a lot of turtle diversity out there

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in our forest in South Charlotte and
with Carolina, we have a lot of

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traveling turtles. I mean, we
look at we have box turtles, we

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have snapper turtles, I mean,
and I just love sitting with them,

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do you know they love watching I
mean sitting there with humans. They'll sit

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there and it's like you're having this
spiritual conversation with them. Yeah. A

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turtle really has a really intent gaze. It really stares at you or whatever

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it's doing, it's eating, you
know, whatever it's focused on. That's

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that's what it's that's what it's doing, that's what it's looking at. And

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this world, you know, where
our attention is often so twitchy and we're

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looking at our phones and we're multitasking, it is so yelling and like you

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said, spiritual to deal with a
creature who is fully immersed the moment.

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They experience time in a different way
than we do, and that's one of

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the reasons that your blood pressure will
just drop ye when you're around the turtle

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and you kind of sink into turtle
time. I study Native American spirituality and

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the one thing that they always teach
us what the turtle is. It's a

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reminder that we're going too fast and
then that time it has to be self

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reliant as well as less dependent,
and that we should also increase sensitivity.

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We should be aware of that that
turtle brings such a powerful message to our

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personal souls. Yeah, I think, aren't they powerful medicine. There's turtle

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clans too in some of the first
nations, and the wisdom that they bring

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is a wisdom that stretches back to
the time of the dinosaurs and the wisdom

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of the elders. Because turtles are
some of the longest lived creatures in the

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world. They can they can live
over two hundred years, and they remind

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us that wisdom and age are great
gifts and they're not something that should be

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discarded. But too often they are
in our culture. So often people like

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to run away from the snake as
well as the turtle. And the reason

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being is because, you know,
because if it's a snapper, stay away,

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stay away. But I always look
at them as being they are the

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closest to Mother Earth. They feel
the vibration of this planet guardians. They

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are Earth guardians in a snapping turtle. People are afraid of them. But

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stapping turtles are amazing animals and they're
super important. Stapping turtles are like vultures

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of ponds. You know, they
eat, they eat dead things. They

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don't hunt, they don't go after
their animals. And you know, without

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without snapping turtles, we'd we'd be
up to our up to our neck and

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dead fishing or your swomen. I
yes, but they're they're super important,

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and and they're only aggressive when you're
bothering them or when they think you're bothering

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them. You know, when you're
one of our best friends is a forty

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two pound, sixty five or so
year old snapping turtle, him five Chief,

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who's one of the turtles we highlight
in our book. We have a

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section on celebrity turtles because turtles are
individuals like we are, and one of

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them is we call him the Chief, the Chief, and we've known him

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since twenty twenty and we did physical
therapy with him after his accident and he

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was hit by a car when he
was crossing from his summer pond to his

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winter pond. And he was rescued
by these ladies to whom we apprenticed ourselves

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of the Turtle Rescue League. They
repaired his broken shell, his legs and

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tail was paralyzed. But after working
with him for two years, they built

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him a wheelchair and we did physically
got to work with them. He became

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our good friend and he lets us
pet him on that very gentle we can,

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we can, we can feed him
our hand in scotch him. And

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he now has his own pond and
he has regained use of his back legs

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and he's called the Chief because he's
his fall name is fire Chief. You

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live behind the fire station in the
fire pond. So that's how he got

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that name. He's a great he's
a great animal. He's one of the

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most gentle animals I've ever met,
not just because he's a snapping turtle.

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He's gentle, he's he's a gentle
animal. Yeah, people don't know how

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they're all different snapping turtle and that's
maybe something we should talk about. Dude.

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You can pick up a snapping turtle
very easily without being hurt. You

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just need to know how to do
it. Yep. Yeah, from the

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side can demonstrate. Yeah, you'd
never grab him by the tail because that

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actually hurts him. The turtles ribs
in its spine are all fused inside the

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shell. They're all fused as part
of the turtle, so he can't come

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out of the shell. And the
best way to pick up a snapping turtle

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is called the wheelwell grip, and
behind the back legs is kind of like

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a hollow space. So if you
grab the top of the shell the carapist

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behind the back legs on top of
it, you can get a firm grip

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and hold him out and he can't
he can't reach you, he can't bite

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you, and you can safely move
him in the direction he or she was

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going. Yeah, and it's always
to be holding a turtle like that.

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It's like holding a historic you know, it's like a hole in a dinosaur.

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It's really like having a friend who's
a dinosaur. Didn't you always growing

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absolutely one? Now. One of
the turtles that we have in our forest

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in South Charlotte is the fact that
these things can go. I mean,

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he could be fourteen to sixteen inches
wide. And the thing is is that

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they like to walk across the street. The whole entire area will stop and

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wait for that turtle to move.
But what happens when it's on that hot

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pavement. We've got to figure out
ways to move them. What would be

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the proper way with one of those
large, large turtles, Well, with

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a large turtle, if you're up
for it, the wheelwell gripped I just

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mentioned where you grab the top of
the shell the characters above the back legs

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hold them out. Okay, there's
another one called the platter lift, where

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you can slide from behind. You
slide your your palm, your hand under

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the turtle onto the plastrom, which
is the hard plate in the bottom of

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the belly. And what you do
there is you slide your hand under it

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and then you lift them up and
you hold the back of the tail the

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base of the tail, yeah,
just for balance. Yeah. And if

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you're if you're afraid to do that, there's a third way you can do

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it. You can you can find
a piece of cardboard. That's what we

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hear, a car floor mat yep, that's what we did. Get him

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on that, yeah, and slide
him across the road, and always do

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it the way he's going or she's
going, because they know where they're going

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there. They don't wander aimlessly.
Like often it's a mother and she's going

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to nesta. And they don't nest
in ponds. I mean they lay eggs

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on the ground yep, in sand
often. So many people see a turtle

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and take it back to the water. But if it's a mother trying to

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lay eggs, Yeah, like making
a pregnant woman hitchhiking to the hospital and

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taking her back, that's no good. Well. Happy Turtle Day twenty twenty

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three, you guys. I love
that you've got the book. I love

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that that you're sharing the journey with
everybody today. And it's just because turtles

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are very powerful turtlem animal to me, and I'm just so glad I got

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to talk with you about turtles.
Well, thank you Joy for us Happy

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World Turtle Day. We're where can
people go to find out more information about

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you guys, because it's obvious you
you have a passion and you have a

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story. Here, well you can
find out book the Book of Turtles wherever

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books have sold, your local bookstore
online. And me and side both have

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our websites, um Si Montgomery dot
com. All right, right, and

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then my website is M. Pattison
art dot com. But you can google

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us and we'll pop up. I
love it. Please come, please come

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back to this show anytime in the
future. The door is always going to

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be open for you too. Gro
thank you, oh, thank you.

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We'll take you up on it.
Please do you be brilliant today? Okay,

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thank you, y brilliant